SageTV became unstable around May 2nd, now it won't record past 2 hours uptime ...

[perfessor101]

Hello,
I'm looking for advice / help / .... Sage TV became unstable for me around May 2nd after running without major problems since January 5th. SageTV stopped recording anything past May 7th if it's been running for more than two hours (great for testing, not so great when I leave it alone). The UI seems to lock up in both service and executable modes very quickly on both the server and client. I've tried disabling share directories in case it was a bad media file (removing the UNC path from the list of shares). Next I tried restoring wiz.bin and sage.properties then the whole backup directory, then reinstalling over top of, then removal with fresh install, removing and reinstalling java 1.4.5 and then java 1.5.2. I'm starting to run dry of ideas ... 3 days no recordings and Enterprise ending tomorrow ... I don't want to wipe the drive and do a new install on windows ... but ... that may be the plan for tomorrow morning. Help ....


Thanks for your time,
Bobby.

ps --- I know I've had a good run since January ... but couldn't it have waited another week or two ;-)

[Opus4]

I wasn't certain about this part: you checked for a bad recording in a recording dir, not just imported videos?

Did anything change on your system around that time? Windows updates? Driver updates? New software installed? You might also want to check for some hardware going bad -- tuner card, memory, etc.

If you contact SageTV tech support, they may be able to help find out SageTV is trying to do when it locks.

- Andy

[judoGTI]

You may want to try a good HD defrag. These files tend to be huge so that may be whats causing the problem. Just an idea.

[perfessor101]

Hello again,
- I checked for a bad recording in all SageTV recording directories. I have three recording directories (\\at7max\tv1, \\at7max\tv2, \\at7max\tv3 *literally*), no imported videos or imported video directories.
- I run DiskKeeper every night while I'm at work for 3 hours to keep fragmentation to a minimum.
- I have removed all recordings past May 1st from those directories.
- I got a USB-UIRT in Early April.
- I have windows updates set to automatic download and manual install (malicious software removal tool was the last)
- My last driver and Software Updates were ATI multimedia center 9.06.1 and Radeon 5.4 drivers on April 21st.
- All tuners are recording properly for the first hour or two ... (3 x ATI eHome Wonder, 1 Hauppauge WinTV PVR USB2)
- Extended memory scan in BIOS completes ok
- I set alternating drives with FSUtil to dirty every morning after stopping SageTV and the service to backup the system at 5:45 am -- (I had many problems with wiz.bin before becomming badly corrupted if my system was left running for more than 36 hours without a reboot [SageTV 2.1 beta era]).
Yesterday morning I did a chkdsk /f /r on all drives (680 GB's takes way too long).
- Oh and yes, the weather changed from the usual for the Wet Coast and became sunny jumping the temperature up a few degrees around then which would have brought my systems operating environment up a few degrees.
- the New Hauppage remote which was working great on that system for many months stops working about five minutes after the last button press since May7th also.

I sent an email to SageTV support this morning ...

Any help would be greatly appreciated ...

Thanks for your time,
Bobby.

I guess I'll start updating that Slipstreamed Windows MCE 2005 OEM install disk today

Sage TV Server:
Windows XP MCE 2005 OEM, SageTV 2.2.8, Java j2re1.4.2_06 installed, Catalyst 5.4 and ATI Multmedia Center 9.061 with DVD fully installed
At7-Max Motherboard, 1024 MB DDR 333 Samsung OEM Memory, ATI AIW Radeon 9000 Video Card, 3 x ATI eHome Wonder Capture Cards with latest drivers, Hauppauge WinTV-PVR USB2 w/ new remote
Seagate 200 GB Hard Disk ATA100 x 2, Maxtor 120 GB Hard Disk ATA133, Seagate 120 GB Hard Disk ATA100, 16X LG DVD, Alps 1.44 Floppy Drive
MS Wheel Mouse Optical USB, Cicero Multimedia USB Keyboard, USB-UIRT

SageTV Client:
Windows XP SP2 OEM, SageTV Client 2.2.8 with Cayars Ultimate v17 STV, Java j2re1.4.2_06 installed, Catalyst 5.4 and ATI Multmedia Center 9.061 with DVD fully installed
AN7 Motherboard, 1024 MB DDR 400 Samsung OEM Memory, ATI AIW Radeon 9600XT Video Card
2 x Seagate 120 GB Hard Disk SATA 150, Liteon 16X DL DVD Burner, Alps 1.44 Floppy Drive
Logitech Cordless MX Duo Keyboard and Mouse, ATI Remote Wonder 2

[zz5]

So have you checked to see if overheating was the problem?

I would take the side of the case off for a few days to see if that fixes the problem.

Maybe a fan quit working.

[Jesse]

This is a longshot.....

Sometime in April I updated my radeon's ATI catalyst drivers to the latest available and within a few days it caused MAJOR instability in my entire system. I un-installed the card, control panel and drivers and then re-installed using an older but known good driver. Problems ceased.

Like I said, a longshot, but who knows?

Good luck,

Jesse

[perfessor101]

I found the problem ... a "trojan downloader" IstBar.er and one other somehow landed on my system. As this is my second virus in almost 10 years of net usage I'm wondering how it got there ... I'm usually very careful.
The trojan downloader froze my virus updates and somehow hid from the virus scanner for 5 days.
The system started becomming unstable the day after I can best pin down the infection date.

Thanks for everyones help,

... now I'll be reinstalling both the client and server systems from windows up to make sure it's gone ...

Bobby

[mc2wheels]

I don't use a virus scanner on my HTPC because it would slow things down to much, but since my machine is on 24/7 and connected to the net, I use a firewall. Personally, I like zone alarm. I prevent all requests except the ones to sage from coming in.